…so here are some books that feature (reproduction postcards of) vintage advertisements. My favourite is hands down (no pun intended) the gloves that come with a cigarette pocket. One of my biggest bugbears is that women’s clothing rarely comes with useful pockets. Usually the pockets on our clothes are too small to be of use or, worse, they’re FAKE pockets just added as a design feature. Seriously, WTF? We need pockets. We need FUNCTIONAL pockets. I have a whole rant on this subject but I’ll just leave you for now with what would probably be my slogan if I went campaigning: Pockets Against the Patriarchy!

Gorgeous Alice in Wonderland themed fabric, paired with vintage linen thread. It was a match made in heaven. Two of these books have already gone to their new homes but the other two can be found in my Etsy shop. Click here to view.

Summer is over and I’m back in the studio again, and this past week has been very productive! First up we have six eyecatching notebooks that feature the character cards from a vintage Cluedo (Clue, for the Americans reading this) board game. The covers have been made using a vibrant deep yellow book cloth, so these books have a certain tactile appeal as well as being very bright!

I was given a lovely commission recently: to cover a stamp album in stamps. The original album was pretty standard fare.

I started by covering it with some good quality brown parcel paper as I needed a background on which to work.

I then added a strip of airmail style washi tape to the spine.

After that it was a case of adding stamps. Which is easier than it sounds, it actually took a very long time to choose the stamps as I kept having to reevaluate after every row to make sure I didn’t have too many of any given colour or style in close quarters.

I love the finished book, it’s so colourful (although I would love to know why Royal Mail don’t seem to have ever done yellow stamps!), and I think the strip of washi tape breaks up the design nicely.

It’s been a while since I upcycled any vintage books, but I unearthed some in my studio a couple of weeks ago and it was lovely to get back to turning one man’s trash into something useful. Visit my Etsy shop if you’re interested in these notebooks (one has already been snapped up!).

No, not an actual disaster, but a commission inspired by the Paper Plane range by Disaster Designs. Back in January I was contacted by a friend who wanted a guestbook made for her wedding.

I’d like something A4 and landscape with coptic binding, as suggested, and we’re expecting 120 guests. We’ve not really got a theme for our wedding, it’s a bit of a mishmash! Our invites are vintagey luggage tags and I love the Disaster Designs paper plane range with the old airmail border, old maps, that sort of thing. My bridesmaid will be wearing teal/turquoise but we’re not going nuts with a specific colour theme. I don’t imagine that’s very helpful really!

She also included links to some of the Disaster Designs items she particularly liked. Despite her fears, this was all incredibly helpful! I had a think, and played around with a few ideas. My first thought was to have sturdy fabric pages covered with pockets so that guests could write their message on a luggage tag and then slot it into the book – this idea didn’t really get past the rough stage, but it’s certainly something I might attempt at a later date!

In the end we settled on the design you can see pictured above. I used a map print by Cavallini & Co for the covers: it would have been nice to use a map which was more personal to the bride and groom, but they were born at opposite ends of the country so it wasn’t that practical! I chose a lovely tan leather to create the look of a quarter-bound binding, and attached a luggage tag to the front bearing the names of the couple and the date. The idea of using some airmail bias tape as a tie closure was abandoned as, in the end, I thought it made the design look too cluttered.

I did use some airmail style bakers twine on the luggage tag though, which I thought was a more subtle nod to the Paper Plane range.

I loved working on this commission as, like the bride, I am a huge fan of the Disaster Designs stuff. I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to get round to blogging about it (the wedding was in August!), but it’s here at last and I hope you all enjoy seeing it.

At the end of December I was contacted by a woman who wanted a recipe box. She’s taking part in a Secret Friend swap and as the person she’s taking care of this year is a recipe collector, she wanted something unique for her. She’d already seen this, which she partly liked but…

…they can’t personalise anything and I think I would prefer something a little more unique, and UK based. Do you think you could work with me on something similar but more awesome?

Of course I said I’d be delighted! I had a bit of a think, and then remembered that back in 2011 I made this memory box. I really enjoyed making it, but never got round to using it, so the tin has been languishing in my house feeling pretty unloved ever since. Time to give it a new lease of life!

I stuck to a simple colour scheme of white and lilac cards, and the divider cards (Starters, Vegetables, Fish, Meat, Baking, Puddings, Condiments, Drinks and Miscellaneous) were made using pages from a vintage copy of Mrs Beeton’s Puddings & Pies, embellished with ribbon and little hand-stamped labels. I know I’m biased, but it does look incredibly pretty – slightly vintage, slightly shabby chic, and totally unique.

For those who like to know these things, the tin measures 21.6 x 9.3 x 8.5cm (WxDxH), and the cards are 10.2 x 7.9cm (WxH).

I hope that the recipient enjoys using it, and I love the thought that she’ll be adding all her own favourite recipes to it over the years to come.